News Releases

Taking a vital step to address the growing crisis of individual student loan indebtedness, the state Senate today passed legislation to expand consumer protections for Washington borrowers. Known as the Student Loan Bill of Rights, Senate Bill 6029 would establish a range of provisions designed to protect Washingtonians from deceptive or predatory practices and require student loan servicers to obtain licenses to operate in the state. “As one of the nearly 800,000 Washingtonians still paying off their college education, I know ...

Two bipartisan bills passed today by the Senate could spur job growth on the Olympic Peninsula and in rural and coastal areas across the state by boosting the timber industry, said Sen. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim. Senate Bill 6140, cosponsored by Van De Wege, could create jobs in rural communities by directing the Department of Natural Resources to evaluate state land, forestland, revenue streams and related management methods to make it easier to transact common-sense land swaps and help ...

With non-compete agreements used broadly throughout the workforce, Sens. Marko Liias and Joe Fain have sponsored new bipartisan legislation aimed at protecting economic innovation and the rights of workers in a variety of fields and pay brackets. The proposal will be the topic of a public hearing on Thursday in the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee. “Non-compete clauses have become a backdoor inhibitor to the startup spirit that defines our region,” said Liias, D-Lynnwood. “We need to be ...

Sen. Marko Liias, D-Lynnwood, will lead Senate floor action as the majority floor leader in the 2018 legislative session. As minority floor leader last session, Liias served in a more reactive capacity for the minority Democrats. But since Democrats won a special election earlier this month in the state’s 45^th Legislative District, they now hold the majority in the Senate. This gives the Democrats and Liias the power to determine which bills will come up for a vote. Liias will also continue ...

A bipartisan majority of 27 Washington state senators today introduced a resolution urging peaceable action on the part of diplomatic bodies of the federal government in collaboration with the international community on behalf of victims of homophobic persecution in Chechnya. “There are reports of 100 or more gay and bisexual men having been abducted and detained at a de facto concentration camp, where many have been beaten, tortured and even killed, and yet many people in our country and around the ...

Democratic senators introduced five separate reforms today to address frustration surrounding how Sound Transit 3 is handling car tabs. Senate Bill 5905, sponsored by Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, would adopt a new formula for assessing the value of vehicles taxed by Sound Transit on future bonds issued by accelerating the rate of depreciation. “We all have a stake in building a world-class transportation system, but we must also ensure that those who can least afford it don’t shoulder an unfair ...